In May 1954, the Supreme Court's decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" seemed a great, transforming event. In the spring of 1964 the achievement of school desegregation seemed almost as far off as ever. We asked ourselves: When will the law be enforced? But without a clear understanding of what the law was--and without a solid political coalition to rally behand a clear view of the law--enforcement and obedience could only become more problematic. For 10 long years the Supreme Court did not decide even one major case to define just what school "desegregation" meant. Between the years 1964 and 1974 the Supreme Court has spoken at last. Freedom-of-choice plans in the South have been swept aside, for example. And both busing and assignment on an explicitly integrative basis have been upheld as reasonable means to achieve that end. The present breakdown in enforcement and obdience to the law is tied--as it was in 1964--to a new and troubling uncertainty as to the substance of the law. What is uncertain is the extent of applicability of the principles originally set forth in "Brown v. Board of Education." It is our job to build the doctrine we once thought secure and to re-establish integration in our school as the basic goal. (Author/JM)